Essays on the science (and art)of product management

Recent articles

Kaizen: continuous improvement. Or, is it continuous dissatisfaction? In any case, this blog is undergoing an end-to-end review and substantial re-write. If you're interested in why, here's a brief explanation.

Here's an easy technique to add to the PM toolbox that leads to immediate roadmap input from a variety of stakeholders, a greater feeling of involvement across your organization, and (surprisingly) consensus.

About me

I am Glen Ford, and I'm a software product manager in Austin, Texas.
This site is where I work out ideas, share my passion for this difficult craft,
and exercise my writing chops.

Because I'm crazy and decided to build my own CMS on Google App Engine (for fun?),
this also lets me keep in shape as a programmer in Python, Google's NoSQL datastore,
and of course the client-side HTML/CSS/JavaScript stack.

"We should take refuge in the fact that very crude systems can accomplish an awful lot. Elegant capabilities are nice, but often unnecessary."

George C. Devol

"If you're doing something 'clever,' you're probably doing it wrong."

Ross Snyder, Etsy

"The teams at Bell Labs that invented the laser, transistor and solar cell were not seeking profits. They were seeking understanding. Yet in the process they created not only new products but entirely new—and lucrative—industries."

"There is definitely a split between people who design primarily from horse sense, from instinct, and then let the spreadsheets fill in the blanks. And then there are the people who start with the spreadsheets."